There when hear: Sound, space, and chance

Author

Mahjouri, Ali Sabert

Date

2000

Advisor

Brown, David P.

Degree

Master of Architecture

Abstract

Sound forms environment more pungently than what is normally called material space. Sound scapes, from Steve Reich's voice experiments, to John Cage's performances of "silence" engage the space they displace. It is given that there is a wide spectrum when speaking of space in terms of sounds as realized in Steve Reich's voice experiments and Cage's ideas of Silence. The flexibility of all the component members of an orchestra, if compared metaphorically to architecture, outflexes the fluidity of materials used in architecture. The musical version of a building is dull compared to the spatial implications of a musical composition. My driving interest is in the slips of cognitions that take place in space. The moments of recollection, reorientation, and the unsure moments of perception are design criteria to create a more fluid architecture. A way to free up architecture is to approach its creation as one creates musical composition.